Brighton & Hove Palestine Campaign

Supporting the struggle to achieve a just and lasting peace for Palestine

Local News & Reports

The books we collected for Samir’s bookshop in Gaza have arrived safely!

Thousands of books from Brighton and around the UK have arrived safely in Gaza

Local activists worked flat out back in the summer to collect books for Samir Mansour’s bookshop that had been destroyed by an Israeli air strike during the assault in May.

Our local members and supporters donated hundreds and hundreds of books, which we delivered to the central collection point in October. 

Since then, we could only hope that the books would get to Gaza safely. 

We’ve now heard that three enormous shipments of books, amounting to over 100,000 books, have arrived safely. 

You can watch the video of the first shipment arriving here – including Samir unpacking the first pallets of books. If you can’t access Instagram, you can see the video on the Facebook page for our comrades Hastings & Rye PSC.

And you can read The Guardian’s coverage here.

NOW AVAILABLE! Video recording of our online meeting ‘Free Mohammed El Halabi’ 20 Oct 2021

We were honoured to host this meeting, which drew attention to the plight of Mohammed El Halabi. 

Mohammed has been imprisoned by Israel for more than 5 years, without trial.

Mohammed worked for international aid organisation World Vision in Gaza. He was arrested in July 2016 by Israel. The charges could not have been more serious: transferring 7.2 million dollars a year from World Vision, an American charity, to Hamas. This despite the fact that World Vision’s total budget over this time in Gaza was a fraction of this amount, and even though two audits concluded that no money was missing. Why? Almost certainly in an attempt to discredit NGOs and aid agencies working in Palestine, by trying to link them to allegedly terrorist groups.

We were especially honoured to welcome Mohammed’s father Khalil, as well as journalist Asa Winstanley and author Andrew Feinstein.

You can view the recording on our YouTube channel.

Recent donations made by BHPSC

We always try to use a proportion of our income, from membership subscriptions and donations from the public, to make donations to groups and projects in Palestine that are part of the resistance. It goes without saying that the need for support in recent weeks has been intense. 

If you wish to add further to our funds for such donations, you can do this via the Donations page on this website

Donation of £500 to Medical Aid for Palestinians
Many of you will be aware of MAP’s work, and you may support their activities yourselves. We responded to their emergency appeal with a donation of £500, on behalf of our members. You can find out more about the appeal, and about MAP’s work, here.

Donation of £500 to IMET2000
IMET2000’s work is perhaps less well known, but achieves extraordinary things in Gaza. You may have heard IMET2000’s founder, Prof Colin Green, speak in Brighton a few years ago. Colin wrote to us personally to thank us for the donation (again, made on behalf of our members) to say that the £500 donation would cover the cost of one of several oxygen concentrators/generators being shipped to Gaza a few days later. More about IMET2000’s work here.

Sanctions Now! Sign the petition

15 May 2021

As a matter of urgency, we call on all our supporters to sign this petition, calling on the UK government to impose sanctions (including an arms embargo) on the Israeli regime. 

The petition was launched on the 14th of May. It reached 100,000 signatures without 24 hours, and has already picked up over a quarter of a million signatures. But it is still essential for as many people as possible to sign – let’s reach half a million quickly! When it reached 100,000 there was an expectation that it will be debated in Parliament, but we must apply pressure on our MPs to ensure this happens without delay.

The ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the relentless assault on Gaza, are only possible with the complicity of the international community. That’s why we must act, now!

Click on the link below to be taken to the petition. Thank you.

Introduce sanctions against Israel

Taking direct action – advice to our members and supporters

BHPSC members and supporters will know that our local PSC branch has, over the years, supported a wide range of activities in support of the campaign for justice and self-determination for the Palestinian people. These activities have sometimes included support for non-violent direct action – through publicity, or endorsement, or through financial assistance.
 
We know that BHPSC members have sometimes taken part in direct action, either directly or indirectly. This is to be expected, since their support for BHPSC and their support for direct action are motivated by the same commitment – to raise awareness of the Palestinians’ struggle.
 
For this reason, the BHPSC Committee want to make sure that any of our members considering taking part in direct action, or lending their support to direct action from a distance, are aware of the possible risks in terms of criminal liability. Of course most people taking part in or supporting direct action are already fully aware of the risks, but we still felt a responsibility to draw this matter to everyone’s attention.
 
There are three trustworthy websites we recommend as sources of information and advice on this issue:

  • Netpol (the Network for Police Monitoring)
  • Green and Black Cross
  • The human rights law firm Bindmans.

 You can find the guidance produced by these sources at these addresses:

  • Netpol ‘Know Your Rights’: click here
  • Green and Black Cross Guides: click here
  • Bindmans ‘Insights’ Guide on Criminal Damage: click here

If you want to discuss these issues further with the officers and committee of BHPSC, feel free to contact us using the ‘Contact Us’ link at the foot of this page.